WINNI ‘ G é S01 ULS 


SLIGH 





THE LIBRARY OF 


REVEREND HARRY M. NORTH 


GRADUATE OF THE CLASS OF 1899 
TRUSTEE 1919-1932 


DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
DURHAM, N. C. 














CHRIST’S WAY OF 
WINNING SOULS 


BY 


JOHN CALHOUN SLIGH 


A Member of the Northwest Texas Conference. 





NasHVILLE, TENN.; Dawvas, TEx. 
Purs.isHinc Housg or THE M. E. CuurcH, SOUTH 
SmiTH & Lamar, AGENTS 
1909 


Dm Sch. R. 


PREFATORY NOTE. 


THE subject of Personal Work appeals at once 
to every Christian worker. In this book the 
writer has endeavored to bring out the underly- 
ing principles governing Christ’s personal deal- 
ings with the unsaved. The object of this work 
is to emphasize the supreme importance of the 
spirit in which personal work is done. 

If the reading of these pages shall help some 
few to follow Christ in the winning of souls, the 
writer will feel that he has written to good pur- 
pose. 

Except where otherwise indicated, the Scrip- 
ture quotations are from the American Revision. 

JoHN CaLHoun SiIcuH. 

EASTLAND, Texas, September, 1008. 


(iii) 





INTRODUCTION. 


BY GROSS ALEXANDER. 


Ir any word that I could say would induce 
ten thousand people to get and read this beau- 
tiful book, I should be very happy indeed. As 
a study of the method and spirit of Jesus, it car- 
ries a charm that will hold the reader to the 
end. As a guide to those who really desire to 
be effective in winning souls and who want to 
“know how,” it will be the very thing they need. 
And it will awaken a desire and more—a con- 
viction—in those fruitless, useless, do-nothing 
Christians who have never known the joy of 
bringing a soul to Christ. 

The book, then, is not for preachers only or 
chiefly ; though it will be a very present help for 
some of them. For it will give them a picture 
of him whom they call Master, and will show 
them how he did and how they are to do if they 
are really (and not professionally) his servants. 
More and more we are coming to see and know 
that every Christian may be, ought to be, is to 
be, a preacher. The old, traditional, conventional 
distinction between the clergy and the laity, be- 
tween the minister and the members, between the 


(v) 


SRA HD 
SRT O28 


vi Introduction. 


preacher and the people, is giving way to a com- 
mon-sense view which is also the scriptural view, 
that every one who knows by experience the say- 
ing power of Christ is to become a witness of 
it to others, and a winner of souls. Here there 
is no distinction. Read Acts i. 8, “Ye shall be 
my witnesses.” Read also Acts viii. 1 in con- 
nection with the startling statement of viii. 4. 

But one should know how; and one who does 
not know how should be willing to learn. He 
must know what to say and, what is of almost 
equal importance, he must know how to say it. 
It must be done in a way that will arrest atten- 
tion, win the confidence, and captivate the heart. 
It is a great art, it is a sublime art, but it is 
also a delicate art. One must know the secret. 
Jesus had the secret. Witness his charm as a 
conversationalist, his overwhelming popularity 
as a speaker to the multitudes. Well, Mr. Sligh, 
one of whose teachers I had the privilege of being, 
brings this out and sets it forth in a way that 
is simple, unaffected, vital, convincing. Those 
who want to know may here learn how; those 
who are so indolent they do not care to know, 
will find themselves wanting to know, if they 
will read this book. 

Nashville, Tenn. 


CONTENDS. 


CHAPTER I. Boe 
CHRIST AS A PERSONAL WORKER........-.ece0cecece I 
CHAPTER II. 

MANIFESTATION OF A FRIENDLY SPIRIT............-- 5 


CHAPTER III. 


A Happy Way oF INTRODUCING THE SUBJECT........ 10 
CHAPTER IV. 
IZROBINIG (GHE) CONSCIENCEC p(t. sae ay tL Le 15 
CHAPTER V. 
A Lrperat put UNCOMPROMISING SPIRIT............ 20 
CHAPTER VI. 
Tue Granp OsjectivE Point: To ReveaL Curist 
TOMTEDEI SUN NER 206 0 i ue SOP Card as sla Umma 23 


CHAPTER VII. 


THe Motive Power: Consuminc EARNESTNESS TO 
IDG Gros SP AY A001 oh AMA MMR URS OREN LUNI aE eM ih 26 


CHAPTER VIII. 


RESULTS OF SOUL-WINNING—BEYOND THE MEASURE 
OE UNGANG STANDARDS). (se ei Ree lah eg WO NaN 3I 








viii Contents. 






CHAPTER IX. 
Curist’s MEssAcr To THE MAN OF 


_ CHAPTER X. 
Curist’s AppeaL To THE Business MAN... 


CHAPTER XI. 
Curist’s CLAIM ON THE ARISTOCRAT..... 


CHAPTER XII. 
Tue Curist PRESENCE........cccecceccs 


CHRIST'S WAY OF WINNING SOULS. 


CHAPTER™ I: 
CHRIST AS A PERSONAL WORKER. 


DurinG the past decade the attention of 
Christian people has been especially called to 
the possibilities of personal work—conversa- 
tional evangelism. As the arm is almost use- 
less without the hand, preaching is likely to be 
powerless to save men unless supplemented by 
personal effort. So widespread has been the 
conviction as to the importance of this kind of 
Christian effort that a distinct class of litera- 
ture has been created. A number of booklets 
have been issued, classifying the different kinds 
of sinners, and arranging Scripture quotations 
to meet all possible objections that the unregen- 
erate man is prone to make when confronted 
with the religious question. 

While much good has doubtless been accom- 
plished by the apt use of memorized texts, it 


(1) 





2 Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


seems to the writer that the spirit in which we 
approach the unsaved man, and our manner 
of dealing with his troubled soul, should be 
of greater importance. Realizing the extreme 
delicacy of the human soul and the far-reach- 
ing issues involved, some conscientious people 
shrink from the task of conversational evan- 
gelism, fearing that they will do more harm 
than good. Others have tried repeatedly, and 
met with little success. The lack of apparent 
success should discourage no one. The main 
thing is to be sure not only that we are in- 
trinsically right, but that we are doing the 
work in Christ’s way. 

Christ’s method was largely conversational. 
He did not make set speeches. He followed 
the Socratic way of teaching by questions and 
answers, as he mingled with all classes of peo- 
ple. In John’s Gospel we have the best speci- 
mens of our Lord’s conversational method 
which have come down to us from the apos- 
tolic age. John himself makes it plain that 
they were but specimens preserved from a vast 
volume of living, spoken truth. 

Without doubt the most complete example 
of Christ’s way of dealing with an individual 


Christ as a Personal Worker. 3 


soul is found in the fourth chapter of John’s 
Gospel. This is a most satisfactory case. The 
work of Christ is seen at its best in his con- 
versation with a woman of the common peo- 
ple, ignorant, degraded, and yet possessing a 
mind that responded readily to the attractions 
of Divine truth. 

It was inevitable that the ministry of Jesus, 
overlapping the ministry of John the Baptist, 
should excite the semblance of religious rival- 
ry. Although John had declared that “he that 
cometh after me is mightier than I,” it is not 
surprising that the Pharisees should welcome 
the news of apparent rivalry when they heard 
that “Jesus was making and baptizing more 
disciples than John.” To avoid the possibility 
of strife between the two groups of disciples 
and the unfortunate effect upon outsiders, 
Jesus withdrew from Judea to return and re- 
sume his Galilean ministry. Arriving at the 
rich plain of Samaria, they stopped at Jacob’s 
well, not far from the village of Sychar. The 
disciples went away into the village to buy 
food, while the Lord awaited their return. As 
he sat thus on the well, in his Jewish attire, an 
Oriental woman, bearing an earthen waterpot 


4 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


on her shoulder, appeared upon the scene. She 
paid no attention to the stranger, but slowly let 
the waterpot down into the depths and drew it 
up again, “‘all dripping with coolness” from the 
well. As she did so the stranger fixed his eyes 
upon her and said, “Give me to drink.” 

The request was so unexpected that the 
woman, as she tendered the water, was seized 
with an irrepressible curiosity, and said: “How 
is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of 
me, who am a Samaritan woman?” Mindful 
of the age-long contempt of Jew for Samari- 
tan, intensified by the fact that in the Samar- 
itan’s veins ran Jewish blood mingled with 
Gentile—a mongrel stock, the black sheep of 
the Jewish family—she had expected to leave 
the Jewish stranger as she had found him, sit- 
ting silent at the well. She looked no more 
for a word from him than from the stones at 
her feet. When he did speak, with gracious 
courtesy, asking for the drink of water he so 
sorely needed, she was astonished. 


CHAPTER II. 
MANIFESTATION OF A FRIENDLY SPIRIT. 


CuRIST’s unexpected request, “Give me to 
drink,” reveals the first principle of his way of 
winning souls—the manifestation of a friend- 
ly spirit. 

In speaking to the woman Jesus crossed a 
double barrier, the Oriental barrier of sex and 
the Jewish barrier of race prejudice. Some 
speak of Christ as a Jew, but the word is too 
small for him. His humanity transcended 
Jewish national barriers and Jewish social cus- 
toms. He is a citizen of the world, the friend 
and brother of mankind. A Jew, especially a 
Pharisee, would have sat at that well and 
would have died of thirst before stooping to 
ask a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. 

If we would save men, as Jesus saved them, 
we may not limit our mission to an exclusive 
circle. To cut ourselves off by arbitrary social 
barriers from saving fellowship with those for 
whom Christ died, is to forfeit the spirit of 


(5) 


6 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


Christ. No man can come into fellowship with 
Christ without having his sympathies broad- 
ened and his narrowness rebuked. A Japanese 
theological student from Vanderbilt, K. Ashi- 
da, who attended the General Missionary Con- 
ference in New Orleans in 1901, said in one 
of the after-meetings: “Up to this time I have 
felt that my mission was to Japan; but now I 
feel that I have a mission to China and to all 
Asia.” 

The natural capacity of men for friendship 
greatly varies. Some will seclude themselves 
within a narrow circle, knowing and caring 
nothing about those on the outside. Others 
will just as naturally form a wide circle of ac- 
quaintance, and carry on a large correspond- 
ence with friends in different parts of the coun- 
try. Whatever natural tastes may be, it is the 
duty of the Christian worker to make friends 
for Christ’s sake. The love that includes less 
than all humanity is not a Christ love. “He 
made of one (blood) every nation of men to 
dwell on all the face of the earth.” All men 
are included in the saving purpose of God and 
in the atonement of Jesus Christ. The mani- 
festation of a friendly disposition is the out- 


Manifestation of a Friendly Spirit. 7 


ward and visible means of approaching a 
deathless spirit. It is the first overture of an 
invitation to immortality. 

Before we can manifest a friendly spirit, we 
must actually have a friendly spirit. If there 
is within us any vestige of bad feeling, it is an 
impediment to the course of Christian love. If 
we are selfishly absorbed in ambitious schemes, 
or business pursuits, or personal pleasures, the 
springs of human affection will dry up. A 
deep and never-failing love for men is the sure 
mark of the Christ spirit. If we actually have 
such a love, we can convince the world of our 
friendship. Such a love can be realized only 
by close contact with the Son of Man, who is 
the Master Lover. If we know Christ, we will 
love men as he loved them. 

After we have caught a measure of Christ’s 
friendship, it is sure to find a way to manifest 
itself. At the same time knowledge of men 
and social usages will help every Christian 
worker. Dr. Van Dyke says that there is one 
way in which people are alike—it is that they 
are all different. Planting our friendship for 
men on the broad basis of the solidarity of 
the race, we find an infinite variety of types 


8 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


and individuals. If we love men, we will study 
human nature. 

But after all, nothing appeals to men like 
supreme naturalness. David Livingstone could 
walk right into the camp of an African chief 
who was surrounded by his warriors and armed 
to the teeth, and could go right up to him and 
extend the hand of greeting with the same 
easy gait and pleasant smile with which he 
would approach an old and trusted friend. 
And thus, at an early stage, Livingstone 
learned to rule the hearts of the Africans. 
That man who loves men and believes in them, 
who has sought and found the keynote that 
vibrates in all hearts—that man can make his 
appeal anywhere and find a response; for that 
which is common to the race is stronger than 
individual or national peculiarities. When 
Christ asked the woman, “Give me to drink,” 
he spoke not as Jew to Samaritan, or as Ori- 
ental man to Oriental woman, but as one hu- 
man being to another; and the response was 
instant and sure. 

“How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest 
drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman?” 
Jesus did not answer the question directly. He 


Manifestation of a Friendly Spirit. 9 


seldom did. His next words only served to 
intensify her interest and curiosity: “If thou 
knewest the gift of God, and who it is that 
saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest 

have asked of him, and he would have given 
_ thee living water.” 

The woman replied: “Sir, thou hast nothing 
to draw with, and the well is deep: whence 
then hast thou that living water? Art thou 
greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the 
well and drank thereof himself, and his sons, | 
and his cattle?” 

The next words of Jesus roused the woman’s 
curiosity to the highest pitch: “Every one that 
drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but 
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
give him shall never thirst; but the water that 
I shall give him shall become in him a well of 
water springing up into eternal life.’’ 

The practical mind of the woman caught at 
the possibilities of such water as a labor-saver 
in domestic economy. Water, one drink of 
which would satisfy thirst for all eternity! She 
wanted it at once. “Sir, give me this water, 
that I thirst not, neither come all the way hith- 
er to draw.” 


CHAPTER III. 


A Happy Way oF INTRODUCING THE 
SUBJECT. 


No writer on pedagogics could suggest a 
more skillful way of establishing the mental 
point of contact. Reasoning from the com- 
monplace fact of a drink of water Jesus di- 
rected the woman’s thoughts to the living 
water, of which if a man drink he shall never 
thirst. By placing a familiar object in a most 
unfamiliar light, he caught and held her atten- 
tion. She was interested, and wanted the wa- 
ter he was talking about. 

First impressions are strongest. If a man is — 
repelled by the first approaches of the Chris- 
tian worker, success is endangered. We find 
people preoccupied with the things of this pres- 
ent world, their thoughts not on spiritual 
things, and it is often matter of difficulty to 
break into the well-connected chain of every- 
day interests. The woman’s mind just then 
was on the drawing of a pitcher of water, 


(10) 


Introducing the Subject. II 


Notice with what master-skill Jesus glides into 
the great theme. The words “gift of God— 
living water—shall never thirst to all eter- 
nity,” were as the first rosy glimmer of spir- 
-itual dawn to the woman’s mind. When Nico- 
demus came to Jesus by night, Jesus at the 
first word shot a shaft of white light into Nico- 
demus’s soul. “Except one be born anew, he 
cannot see the kingdom of God.” What this 
self-complacent master in Israel needed was 
to be blinded by the blaze of full-orbed spir- 
itual truth and startled out of his own intel- 
lectual orbit. Not so with this peasant woman. 

The hammer-and-tongs method of approach- 
ing a sensitive human soul, without divine skill 
or wisdom, is of no avail. The writer well re- 
members an experience in light housekeeping 
at the old Dryades Street parsonage in New 
Orleans. After moving in our trunks and be- 
longings and scraping up some of the dust 
from the floors, I sallied forth to get oysters 
for supper. The girl at the little shop asked 
me if I wanted them opened. I said, “No— 
shells and all.” Returning to our rooms, I 
undertook to prize the shells open. First, I 
tried to insinuate a screw-driver in between the 


12 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


shells. I never realized before that an oyster 
could have such tenacity of purpose. I tried 
again by setting the oyster on edge and ham- 
mering on it as on a blacksmith’s anvil. After 
nearly an hour’s hard work, we succeeded in 
dislodging a dozen or more of the outraged 
mollusks ; but they were unfit to eat, and made 
us sick. I never bought oysters again without 
having them opened at the shop. Afterwards 
I saw some experts shucking oysters. They 
would pick them up, toss the shells aside, and 
throw the oysters into a tub, as fast as hands 
could move. It was all a matter of knowing 
how to approach the oyster. 

The man who would win souls for Christ 
must know the avenues of approach to the 
common mind as well as the means of access 
to the cultured classes. There is a road into 
every man’s thoughts, or at least a pathway, 
however twisted and tangled it may be. How 
to find the road, or to follow the trail that leads 
"into the circle of a fellow-being’s supreme in- 
terests—this is the task before the personal 
worker. To miss the trail is to accomplish 
nothing, or worse than nothing. 

For this reason, Christ was always talking 


Introducing the Subject. 13 


? 


about common things in an uncommon way. Cee 
When he found Simon and Andrew, James : 
and John, by the Sea of Galilee, with their nets 
and their fishing, he appealed to their fisher- 
man’s instinct. ‘Come ye after me, and I will 
-make you fishers of men.’ For the farmer, 
he had the parable of the Sower; for the mer- 
chant, he had the parable of the Merchant 
Seeking Goodly Pearls; for the financier, he 
had the parable of the Talents; for the shep- 
herd, he had the parable of the Good Shep- 
herd, and that of the Sheep and the Goats, at 
the last judgment; and for all humanity, he 
had the parable of the Prodigal Son. 

And yet, the same Saviour who could touch 
the minds of the common people at so many 
points could so enthrall the mind of the cul- 
tured and scholarly Saul of Tarsus that he ex- 
claims: “What things were gain to me, these 
have I counted loss for Christ! Yea, verily, 
and I count all things to be loss for the excel- 
lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
Lord.” 

The successful personal worker must be full 
of his subject. It is foolish to suppose that 
by memorizing a few isolated Scripture texts 


14 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


a man can equip himself to charm men out of 
their sins into the love of Christ. He may not 
be a scholar, he may not have a profound or 
brilliant intellect, but his mind must be imbued, 
permeated, with the spirit of the Gospels. He 
must know Christ, and the gospel of Christ. 
In him he must live and move and have his 
being. He must know the Old Testament as 
it looks forward to Christ, and the Acts and 
Epistles as they cast an afterglow of light upon 
our Lord. He may not be an expert at quoting 
proof-texts; but the spirit of these things he 
must have in his heart, and that to overflow- 
ing. And when the opportunity comes to sow 
the seed, he is justified in claiming the promise: 
“But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask 
of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraid- 
eth not; and it shall be given him.” 

Nothing but practice and the wisdom of God 
can teach us how to let the first spark of light 
into a human soul. But remember, there is 
always a road to every man’s mind. Christ 
knows that road. If we abide in him, he will 
teach us. There may be failures, even ludi- 
crous mistakes; but the end will reward us 
with divine skiil and divine success. 


CHAPTER IV. 
PROBING THE CONSCIENCE. 


WHEN the woman made the request that 
Christ give her some of this remarkable water, 
he turned and said: “Go, call thy husband and 
come hither.” 

Considerably abashed, the woman replied: 
“T have no husband.” 

Straight the Saviour looked her in the face, 
as he said: “Thou saidst well, I have no hus- 
band; for thou hast had five husbands; and he 
whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this 
thou hast said truly.” 

The next principle of Christ’s way of win- 
ning souls is that his words probed the con- 
Science and suited themselves to the moral con- 
dition of the hearer. A harsh rebuke is like 
a disagreeable medicine: it is hard to get the 
patient to take the treatment. But if you can 
softly turn the light of a man’s conscience on 
his own sin, so that he will rebuke himself, 
lasting good will be accomplished. Jesus nev- 


(15) 


16 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


er needlessly wounded the self-love of people. 
His prophetic eye read the whole inner history 
of the woman. She had tampered with the 
marriage tie, like a thing to be put on and off 
as a garment, until finally she had reached the 
point of dispensing with the marriage cere- 
mony altogether—the logical end of all such. 

No lasting good can be accomplished by per- 
sonal work unless we probe the conscience. 
We may not have the prophetic insight of 
Jesus; but if, by the spirit of Christ, we can 
wake up the conscience, we can locate the in- 
fected spot. In actual experience, sin is not an 
abstract something, but very tangible, exceed- 
ingly real and personal. While all sin springs 
from one generic root, a man must be led to 
repent of that particular sin of which he has 
been guilty. I like best Luke’s account of 
John’s message of repentance, because it is 
positive and specific: 

“And the multitudes asked him, saying, 
What then must we do? And he answered 
and said unto them, He that hath two coats, let 
him impart to him that hath none; and he that 
hath food, let him do likewise. And there 
came also publicans to be baptized, and they 


Probing the Conscience. 17 


said unto him, Teacher, what must we do? 
And he said unto them, Extort no more than 
that which is appointed you. And the soldiers 
also asked him, saying, And we, what must we 
do? And he said unto them, Extort from no 
man by violence, neither accuse any one wrong- 
fully ; and be content with your wages.” 

John did not hesitate, in the spirit of candor 
and kindness, to address himself to the specific 
sins of which his hearers were guilty. 

This is the realm of spiritual therapeutics ; 
it may be of spiritual surgery. A great deal 
of the success of the modern physician is due 
to his skill in disguising disagreeable remedies 
in capsules; and in surgery, to the use of an- 
esthetics. Jesus Christ was always merciful 
to the consciences of men. He did not try 
to torment or afflict the guilty soul. If the 
guilt was recognized and acknowledged, that 
was enough. The most effective preaching is 
where a man’s own conscience speaks to him. 
Paul in the second chapter of Romans says: 
“They show the work of the law written in 
their hearts, their conscience bearing witness 
therewith, and their thoughts one with another 
accusing or else excusing them.” <A gentle 

2 


18 = Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


admonition, it may be only a suggestion, will 
often arouse a man’s conscience and fill him 
with sorrow, where a stern rebuke would only 
set him to defending himself and hardening 
his heart. When Christ denounced the hypo- 
critical Pharisees so severely, it was for the 
purpose of breaking their hold upon the com- 
mon people; and not with the hope of helping 
them personally, for they were past redemp- 
tion. There are times when the public good 
demands that the thunders of Sinai peal from 
the pulpit; but gentleness should be the rule in 
personal work. 

When Jesus looked down the troubled vista 
of this Samaritan woman’s domestic life, it 
was only with a great sympathy and pity. But 
his words, kind as they were, gave yet an un- 
flinching statement of facts. Who is sufficient 
for these things? Who among us is fit to be 
a messenger of grace to guilty men? And yet, 
we are all kings and priests unto God. God 
gives to every genuine believer authority to 
speak to the consciences of men, and if we 
speak the truth of God, then the keys of the 
kingdom hang at our girdle, and whatsoever 
we bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and 


Probing the Conscience. 19 


whatsoever we loose on earth shall be loosed 
in heaven. If only God be with us, if we are 
filled with divine compassion for sinners, we 
need not be afraid to speak bravely, without 
flinching, and our words will meet an approv- 
ing response in the consciences of men. 


CHAPTER V. 
A LIBERAL BUT UNCOMPROMISING SPIRIT. 


THE woman did not care to dwell on the 
dark pages of her domestic history. Like a 
great many other people, she preferred to dis- 
cuss abstract theological questions, rather than 
her own personal sins. She turned the con- 
versation to the age-long controversy between 
Jew and Samaritan, the ritualistic question as 
to the particular place where temple worship 
should be observed. Over against them Mount 
Gerizim towered eight hundred feet above the 
plain, with the ruins of the old Samaritan 
temple on its summit. The scene easily sug- 
gested the words: “Sir, I perceive that thou 
art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this 
mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the 
place where men ought to worship.” 

The answer to this query discloses another 
principle of Christ’s way of winning souls; his 
teaching had all the freedom of divine truth, 
and was yet absolutely without the spirit of 


(20) 


Liberal but Uncompromising Spirit. 21 


compromise. A false idea of tact might have 
led him to temporize as to the rivalry between 
the Jewish and Samaritan ideas of worship. 
But Jesus never acted upon mere expediency. 
He unhesitatingly affirmed that the Jews were 
right and the Samaritans were wrong; that 
Jerusalem is the place to worship; but that 
after all the whole scheme was merely a tem- 
porary expedient to prepare men’s minds for 
the reception of the great truth of the spirit- 
uality of God, and the glorious fact that the 
whole earth is his temple. 


Thou, O Spirit that before all temples dost prefer 
The upright heart and pure—. 


“Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when 
neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, 
shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that 
which ye know not: we worship that which we 
know; for salvation is from the Jews. But 
the hour cometh and now is, when the true 
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit 
and in truth; for such doth the Father seek to 
be his worshipers.” 

Every conscientious man has convictions 
even upon minor theological questions. Let 


22 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


love be without dissimulation. In order to 
win men, it is not necessary to surrender our 
convictions. We can rather win their respect 
by frankly stating our beliefs wherever neces- 
sary. Wherever foreign missionaries have 
tried the experiment of compromise in order 
to win converts, it has resulted disastrously, 
reacting to the hurt of Christianity. 

But it is noticeable that Jesus did not seek 
to convert the woman to his views of temple 
worship, but leads her on to the supreme fact 
of the spiritual worship of God. “God is a 
spirit; and they that worship him must worship 
in spirit and in truth.” 


CHAPTER Viv 


Ture GRAND OBJECTIVE Potnt: To REVEAL 
CHRIST TO THE SINNER. 


THE woman was again brought face to face 
with the personal religious problem. Fler 
conscience might have slept on undisturbed 
through a whole day’s wrangle about the re- 
spective claims of the rival Samaritan and Jew- 
ish altars; but when the white light of the 
awful spirituality of God and the purity of 
spiritual worship was shed upon her conscience, 
she felt the glaring defects of her life. With 
downcast eyes and a hushed and tremulous 
voice, we can hear her murmuring: “T know 
that Messiah cometh (he that is called Christ) ; 
when he is come, he will declare unto us all 
things.” 

“Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee 
am he.” 

The great principle of Christ’s way of win- 
ning souls is to reveal the person of Christ to 
the sinner. He had entered into friendly con- 


(23) 


24 Christ’s Way of W inning Souls, 


versation with the woman; he had turned her 
thoughts to the all-important question ; he had 
aroused her conscierice to a sense of her sins ; 
he had brought her face to face with the awful 
spirituality of the one true God, whose pres- 
ence pervades the earth, and who requires a 
pure spiritual worship—and her conscience 
cried out for a Saviour. Then came the grand 
revelation: “I that speak unto thee am he.” 
Let us remember, in all our efforts to save 
men, that Jesus Christ is the grand objective 
point. Here is where much so-called religious 
work breaks down. There are many ways of 
helping men, many blessings that we can scat- 
ter along the way by philanthropic effort. We 
may find a man naked, and clothe him; hun- 
gry, and feed him; sick, and we may visit and 
restore him; out of work, and we may find 
him a job; ignorant, and we may educate him; 
morally broken down, and we may induce him 
to brace up and return to respectability; we 
may find him unchurched, and we may induce 
him to be baptized and join the Church. These 
things are good; but let us make sure that we 
do not fail to bring the man into contact with 
the supreme good, Jesus Christ. Be assured 


The Grand Objective Point. 25 


that we have never done our duty by our fel- 
low-man, until we have led him to the vision 
of the Glory of Christ. Let us keep the main 
object. before us, Jesus Christ and him cruci- 
fied. “For I determined not to know anything 
among you, save Jesus Christ, and him cruci- 
fied.” “God forbid that I should glory, save in 
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom 
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the 
world.” (A. V.) 


CHAPTER VIL 


THe Motive Power: CONSUMING EARNEST- 
NEss TO Do Gop’s WILL. 


FILLED with holy amazement, the woman 
left her waterpot and went away into the city. 
The disciples returned with their supplies. 
After they had arranged the food, for the 
meal, Jesus paid no attention to it, but still — 
sat at the well, his soul consumed with 
thoughts too deep for words. Finally the dis- 
ciples broke in on his thoughts, saying, “Rabbi, 
eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to 
eat that ye know not. The disciples therefore 
said one to another, Hath any man brought 
him aught to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My 
meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and 
to accomplish his work.” 

The motive power of Christ’s way of win- 
ning souls is a consuming desire to do the will 
of God. It is possible that a man might un- 
dertake the work of soul-winning because oth- 
ers were doing it and it was in the air; or pos- 

(26) 


The Motive Power. 27 


sibly there might be a vague desire to do good, 
or to win the approval of good people. But 
unless there is a consuming purpose to do 
God’s will, all such efforts will be as transient 
as the morning dew. No man will make it a 
lifelong practice to lead men to Christ, unless 
the motive power is a desire to fulfill God’s 
purpose. 

But a man cannot really give himself to soul- 
winning without feeling that it is the most im- 
portant work in the world. The greatness of 
the work itself begets an irresistible enthusi- 
asm. 

Jesus engaged the Samaritan woman in con- 
versation and led up to the great theme of 
themes because it was God’s will for him to do 
so. As the woman’s interest was awakened, 
and she was brought to the point of accepting 
him as her Saviour, the Master’s own interest 
was enlisted until the volume of thought and 
feeling swept him along and overwhelmed the 
natural desire for food. He had said that man 
should not live by bread alone. Now, he was 
feeding on the bread of useful service. That 
man who seeks to save his fellows will never 
have a starveling soul. 


28 = Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


Making God’s will our motive, building on 
the solid rock of the divine purpose, relieves 
us from undue concern about results. Emer- 
son says: “A man is relieved and gay when 
he has put his heart into his work.” We need 
not be too greatly concerned about fruit. The 
fruit will come, results will follow, if we are 
in harmony with God. “He that abideth in 
me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; 
for apart from me ye can do nothing,” says 
the Master in the fifteenth of John. In He- 
brews we read: “For ye have need of patience, 
that, having done the will of God, ye may re- 
ceive the promise.” 

The soul-seeking, soul-winning habit puts us 
in touch with secret resources of satisfaction. 
The opportunity to save a soul meant more to 
Christ than the chance to eat a meal. The act 
of giving reacted. upon his own spirit and filled 
him with deep satisfaction. 

When we make the purpose of God our pur- 
pose, we get a spirit of consuming earnestness. 
You cannot hope to win a man for Christ until 
the desire to save him becomes the paramount 
issue. Emerson says that “no great work was 
ever accomplished without enthusiasm.” An 


The Motive Power. 29 


intense, well-tempered, wisely directed enthu- 
siasm is the God-given privilege of the soul- 
winner. We must make men feel our earnest- 
ness of purpose. Enthusiasm will catch and 
hold the attention of men. It will arouse in- 
terest and kindle feeling. Enthusiasm will 
atone for a thousand blunders. Lack of it will 
kill a revival, paralyze a preacher’s usefulness, 
and fossilize a whole congregation. 

I once attended a meeting of coal miners at 
Bonanza, Arkansas. The feature of the occa- 
sion was a speech by John Mitchell, the labor 
leader. There were no seats, the crowd had to 
stand, and the programme was long-drawn-out. 
There was a speech by Mr. Mitchell’s secre- 
tary, then a speech by the District Judge. 
Next on the programme was a speech by Con- 
gressman John S. Little, afterwards Governor — 
of the state. When it came Mr. Little’s turn, 
the crowd was tired and impatient, and began 
to cry: “Mitchell! Mitchell! we want to hear 
Mitchell!” Little turned to Mitchell and whis- 
pered: “Get up for my sake, get up and speak.” 
Mitchell said: “No, you must speak first.” 1 
saw Little step up from the platform to a stool- 
bottom chair; I saw the surge of blood to his 


30 ~=—- Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


face, and the swelling of veins in his forehead. 
His voice rang clear above the tumult: “Fel- 
low-citizens, I am just like you; I want to hear 
John Mitchell speak.” Loud cheers greeted 
his words. “But,” he continued, “Mr. Mitchell 
has just requested me to make my speech as 
a special favor to him, and I know that you 
want to do what he wants done.” The cheers 
rose again, and Mr. Little swept the crowd, 
making the best speech of the occasion. It 
was the compression of an intense earnestness 
within a few well-chosen words that relieved 
an embarrassing situation, and saved the day 
for'Mr. Little. 

When you stand face to face with a fellow- 
being, it may require only a few right-spoken 
words to turn the tide of his life toward God; 
but those words must be yitalized by earnest- 
ness and backed by the infinite power of God. 


CHAPTER Vink 


RESULTS OF SOUL-WINNING—BEYOND THE 
MEASURE OF HUMAN STANDARDS. 


Tue Samaritan woman was saved. We 
have no account of her profession of religion, 
but we know that she was saved, because she 
immediately brought others to Jesus. 

“So the woman left her waterpot, and went 

away into the city, and saith to the people, 
Come, see a man who told me all things that 
ever I did: can this be the Christ? They went 
out of the city and were coming to him. 
And from that city many of the Samaritans 
believed on him because of the word of the 
woman who testified, He told me all things 
that ever I did. So when the Samaritans came 
unto him, they besought him to abide with 
them; and he abode there two days. And 
many more believed because of his word; and 
they said to the woman, Now we believe, not 
because of thy speaking; for we have heard 
for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the 
Saviour of the world.” 


(3a) 


32 Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


We could have no better evidence that the 
woman herself was saved. All of which goes 
to show that the possibilities of soul-winning 
are immeasurable. Through a friendly con- 
versation with one woman, beginning with a 
request for a drink of water, rising to the 
theme of living water, her conscience was 
touched, and she cried out for a Saviour. 
When she had come in saving contact with 
him, she left her waterpot and sped back into 
the village proclaiming the news from the 
house-tops. She went at once to her old ac- 
quaintances, sensual and godless as they no 
doubt were, and said: “Come, see a man who 
told me all things that ever I did: can this be 
the Christ?” At once Christ was put in touch 
with the very worst people in the town, and a 
revival was started which swept the place. 

No man who has the assurance that he is 
doing God’s work in God’s way need be dis- 
couraged about results. The kingdom of God 
cometh not with observation. Moody says 
that some converts are to be counted, others 
are to be weighed. A man’s possibilities for 
Christian usefulness can never be known until 
he has known Christ. The last shall be first 


Results of Soul-winning. 33 


and the first last. Men with brains, money, 
and influence often come into the kingdom of 
God and do little more than fill a place in the 
Church; while a Jerry MacAuley or a Gypsy 
Smith, fished up from the dregs, makes a burn- 
ing and shining light. Despise not the day of 
small things. 

When Dwight L. Moody went to Boston to 
work in his uncle’s store, he was a raw coun- 
try boy of seventeen, hardly able to read. 
When he joined the Sunday school, the teacher 
gave him a Bible and asked him to turn to the 
Gospel of John. The boy awkwardly began 
turning the leaves back at Genesis, and the 
rest of the class laughed at him. The teacher 
kindly covered the boy’s confusion, and helped 
him to find the right place. He won young 
Moody’s heart, who made up his mind that he 
would stand by a teacher who would help out 
a fellow like that. Some days afterwards, the 
Sunday-school teacher went into the back part 
of the store and found Moody wrapping up 
some shoes. He put one foot up on a box and 
talked to the boy about his soul’s salvation, 
and won him to Christ. There was no way 
for that teacher to have known the possibilities 

3 


34. = Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


for national and international and eternal use- 
fulness wrapped up in that green country boy’s 
heart. Soul-winning is like mining for dia- 
monds; it is impossible to estimate the output 
by weight or numbers. “In the morning sow 
thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy 
hand; .for thou knowest not which shall pros- 
per, whether this or that, or whether they both 
shall be alike good.” (Ecclesiastes xi. 6.) 


CHAPTER: TX 
CHRIST’S MESSAGE TO THE MAN OF CULTURE. 


CuRIST’s conversation with the Samaritan 
woman furnishes the best example of the 
means Of approaching the common mind. As 
there is an essential unity in all humanity, the 
same principles will guide us in our dealing 
with all classes. However, the New Testa- 
ment gives us other instances of his way of 
handling special cases. Among these I have 
selected, as most typical, the interview with. 
Nicodemus as illustrating Christ’s message to 
the man of culture; the encounter with Zac- 
cheus as typical of Christ’s appeal to the busi- 
ness man; and the case of the rich young ruler 
as setting forth Christ’s claim on the aristo- 
crat. The characteristics of these three classes 
may in some respects overlap each other, or 
may even be combined sometimes in the same 
individual; but they are sufficiently distinct to 
serve as a working basis. 

Nicodemus was a man of developed brain 


(35) 


36 ~—s Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


and special training. His coming to Jesus by 
night indicates a wary and politic disposition. 
His opening sentence reveals a mind at once 
logical and open to conviction: “Rabbi, we 
know that thou art a teacher come from God; 
for no one can do these signs that thou doest, 
except God be with him.” The Saviour chose . 
to ignore the personal compliment involved. 
He was not willing to treat with Nicodemus 
merely on the plane of a teacher come from 
God. Nor do we observe any of that wary 
and gradual approach which characterized his 
conversation with the Samaritan. ‘What Nic- 
odemus needed was to be startled out of his 
own intellectual orbit, wrested bodily from the 
domination of preconceived ideas. Jesus at 
the first plunge took Nicodemus clean beyond 
his depth. 

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one 
be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God.” The physical impossibility of the thing 
surprised Nicodemus. “How can a man be 
born when he is old? can he enter a second 
time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 

Here, as always, but with unusual direct- 
ness, Jesus strikes straight for the spiritual 


Message to the Man of Culture. by 


truth. ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except 
one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God. That which 
is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is 
born of the Spirit is spirit.” 

The fact of a spiritual birth was even more 
perplexing to Nicodemus than the idea of a 
second physical birth. “How can these things 
be?” he exclaims, confessing his ignorance. 

Jesus means to teach Nicodemus that no 
amount of culture, religious or literary, can 
take the place of religious experience. “Ye 
must be born anew,’’—this is the corner stone 
of religious life, the Magna Charta of the soul. 
It is the death-blow to ritualism. It sounds 
the knell of mere dry intellectualism. Not 
philosophical speculation, not rabbinical lore, 
not temple ritual—but life, spiritual life from 
the God who is a Spirit. “That which is born 
of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of 
the Spirit is spirit.” Jesus adduces no argu- 
ment to prove this. Being one of the ele- 
mentary principles of religious life, it needed 
no proof save the authority of Jesus. 

Christ supplies the human mind with cer- 
tain elementary truths which can be learned 


38 ~—- Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


nowhere else. The New Birth, the Golden 
Rule, the Fatherhood of God and the Brother- 
hood of Man, the Eternal Punishment of the 
Wicked and the Eternal Reward of the Right- 
eous—these are truths which, like the axioms 
of mathematics, need no demonstration. As. 
light is fitted to the eye, the sayings of Christ 
are fitted to the understanding. The mind, 
wearied with uncertain speculations about life 
and destiny, like Noah’s dove, can find in these 
truths a resting place for the sole of the foot. 
The intellect settles down on these basic facts 
with the calm assurance that the rock-ribbed 
hills are not more securely established. What 
the fundamental discoveries of Copernicus, 
Galileo, Kepler, and Newton are to astronomy, 
Jesus Christ is to essential moral truth. They 
are not simply religious truths—they are eter- 
nal, living facts, and carry conviction along 
with them. “The multitudes were astonished 
at his teaching; for he taught them as one hay- 
ing authority, and not as the scribes.” (Mat- 
thew vii. 28, 29.) 
Religious experience, based on the truth of 

Christ, enables the man of culture and the 
seeker after culture to realize a practicable 


Message to the Man of Culture. 39 


philosophy of life. “Knowledge comes, but 
wisdom lingers.” There are many things the 
knowledge of which adds to the enjoyment and 
adornment and usefulness of life; but the 
knowledge of Jesus is the perpetuation of all 
the best elements of life. “And this is life 
eternal, that they should know thee the only 
true God, and him whom thou didst send, even 
Jesus Christ.” (John xvii. 3.) 

There is a culture without God which'yields 
a degree of satisfaction. There are those who 
seek and intermeddle with all knowledge who 
neither know nor care for God. To revel in 
the masterpieces of literature, to examine the 
deep things of human philosophy, and to scan 
history’s page for the records of the past; to 
search out the mysterious combinations of 
chemistry, to understand the occult laws of 
physics, and to explore the depths of the in- 
finite heavens; to sit wrapt beneath the charm 
of music’s spell, to stand in admiring contem- 
plation before the choicest works of art, and to 
gaze with enchanted eye upon the varied beau- 
ties nature spreads with lavish hand on earth 
and air and sea and cloud,—these are the ac- 
tivities by which they would nourish the soul 


40 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


and bring it to manhood’s tallest stature. It 
is to be regretted that those who hold half a 
truth should commit so great an error. Edu- 
cation has a glorious mission. But, as Bishop 
Haygood says: “Self-seeking culture, culture 
without conscience, mere knowledge without 
worship, does itself tend to nourish and de- 
velop the lower side of our nature; unsanctified 
culture, whether in philosophy, in literature, in 
science, or in art, has its normal and not in- 
frequent end in some form of sensuality.” 
Intellectual culture is no antidote for sin, 
“But we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a 
stumbling-block, and unto Gentiles foolishness; 
but unto them that are called, both Jews and 
Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wis- 
dom of God.” (1 Corinthians i. 24, 25.) 
Burns sprang from the soil of Scotland like 
the “wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower”; and 
his poetry wells up out of a heart full of 
beautiful nature and sympathy for humankind. 
Byron sprang from the aristocracy, and his 
poetic imagery delights the lover of beauty. 
The careers of both are stock examples to the 
moralist that neither intellectual brilliance nor 
poetic fervor can save a man from moral 


Message to the Man of Culture. 41 


wreckage. Tennyson is possibly not the equal 
of Burns in untrammeled poetic feeling, the 
spontaneous outburst of inspiration; but Ten- 
nyson took the Star of Bethlehem for his 
guide, linked his poetic talent with Christian 
feeling, addressed his greatest poem to the 
“Strong Son of God, immortal Love,” and has 
won wider and more enduring fame. Burns 
in a spasm of remorse might write: 


For guilt, for guilt, my terrors are in arms. 
I tremble to approach an angry God, 
And justly smart beneath his sin-avenging rod. 


Fain would I say, “Forgive my foul offense,” 
Fain promise never more to disobey; 
But should my author health again dispense, 
Again I might desert fair Virtue’s sway; 
Again in folly’s path might go astray; 
Then how should I for heavenly mercy pray, 
Who run so counter heavenly mercy’s plan, 
Who sin so oft have mourned, yet to temptation ran? 


O, thou great Governor of all below! - 
If I may dare a lifted eye to thee, 
_ Thy nod can make the tempest cease to blow, 
Or still the tumult of the raging sea; 
With that controlling power assist even me, 
Those headlong furious passions to confine, 
For all unfit I feel my powers to be, 
To rule their torrent in the allowed line: 
O, aid me with thy help, Omnipotence Divine! 


42 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


But Tennyson, the poet of love and law,— 
and not of lawless passion,—closes his life with 
the calm assurance: 

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place, 

The flood may bear me far, 


I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have crost the bar. 


Sergeant S. Prentiss, the brilliant lawyer and 
politician of the Mississippi Valley, had an 
oratorical fervor and statesmanlike grasp of 
mind and breadth of culture comparable to a 
Gladstone; but he wasted his brilliant gifts in 
drunkenness, gambling, and debauchery, and 
achieved only a meteoric career; while the fame 
of England’s great Commoner is as broad as 
civilization, and will outlive his death by many 
generations, because he built his career upon 
the Impregnable Rock, Christ Jesus. 

One of the most notable modern instances 
of the profound change produced in a cultured 
man’s life by contact with Christ is to be seen 
in the career of James Tissot, the French paint- 
er. It could hardly be expected that such a 
thing would come to an artist whose specialty 
was his paintings of society women, and who 
had won renown by his brilliant sketches of 


Message to the Man of Culture. 43 


actresses and grisettes. But the hand of God 
touched him by means of a bereavement, and 
Tissot forsook these things because they no 
longer satisfied him as a man or an artist; and 
in 1890 he went to the Holy Land and spent 
six years studying the people and customs and 
scenery of the country, and then executed a 
large number of paintings and sketches illus- 
trating the entire life of the Christ. Looking 
upon these pictures, one can but feel that the 
Christ Presence in the artist’s life wrought 
with his pencil and brush, making the Saviour 
and his times to live and throb before our eyes. 
James Tissot, the Christian artist, will be re- 
membered long after James Tissot the bril- 
liant, fashionable Parisian painter has been for- 
gotten. 

There need be no separation between Chris- 
tianity and culture. Much that is uncouth and 
repellent has attached itself to the doctrines of 
the Church and the practices of the saints; but 
this is not of Christ. There is in him nothing 
of the coarse, ignorant, or abnormal. The 
highest beauty and the highest truth dwelt in 
his mind together; and the greatest philoso- 
phers, poets, artists, and statesmen have paid 
him homage. 


44 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


The gospel message has within itself suffi- 
cient attraction for the noblest minds. We are 
not surprised when Nicodemus, laying aside 
his caution in the dark hour of the crucifixion, 
comes openly, bringing a hundred weight of 
costly myrrh and aloes, and assists Joseph of 
Arimathea in removing the bleeding body of 
the Lord from the cross and preparing the 
sacred remains for the burial. 

If we wish to win the student, the thinker, 
the professional man, we can find nothing bet- 
ter than the words of Christ, the brightest gem 
of gospel truth, spoken in that night interview 
with Nicodemus: 

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be 
lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have eternal life. For 
God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him 
, should not perish, but have everlasting life. 
For God sent not his Son into the world to 
condemn the world; but that the world through 
him might be saved.” (A. V.) 


CHAPTER X. 
- Curist’s APPEAL TO THE BUSINESS MAN. 


One day, as Jesus was passing through 
Jericho, he saw a little man run ahead of the 
crowd and climb up into a sycamore tree. He 
recognized him at once; it was Zaccheus, the 
chief publican. The Saviour bent his steps to 
the foot of the tree, and looking up, said to 
the tax-gatherer: “Zaccheus, make haste, and 
come down; for to-day I must abide at thy 
house.” (Luke xix. 5.) Surprised and de- 
lighted, Zaccheus came down and received him 
joyfully. As they walked on together, his 
mind was in a tumult. He was used to the 
Pharisees, with their broad phylacteries, their 
long robes, and their greetings in the market 
place. But they never made the slightest im- 
pression for good upon him, for he well under- 
stood that they loved the praise of men more 
than the glory of God; moreover, they might, 
for a pretense, make long prayers, but so long 
as they continued to devour widows’ houses, 


(45) 


46 Christ's Way of W inning Souls. 


and defraud the poor, their saintly pretensions 
would never deceive Zaccheus. They were 
grafters as well as he; all had an eye to the 
main chance. The only difference was that 
Zaccheus sacrificed his reputation and became 
a byword and a hissing, while the Pharisees 
carried reputation in one hand and avarice in 
the other. 

But in Jesus he saw a man of a new type. 
He wore no Pharisaical affectations; hé did 
not seem to be trying to impress any one with 
his saintliness; he wore the dress of the com- 
mon people. He spoke, not with measured 
sanctimoniousness, but in direct, everyday lan- 
guage. But for all this lack of display, there 
was a touch of genuineness which challenged 
Zaccheus’s admiration. The wily tax-gatherer 
was not easily deceived. Had he not seen 
blind Bartimeus sitting by the wayside, 
begging? Had he not heard the blind beg- 
gar lift up his voice and say, “Jesus, thou 
son of David, have mercy on me’? And 
had he not beheld Jesus turn and say to 
him, “Receive thy sight”? “And immediately 
he received his sight and followed him, glori- 
fying God.” Here was a man who had a dif- 


Appeal to the Business Man. 47 


ferent purpose in life from any one Zacche- 
us had ever seen. Here was a man whose 
main purpose was not to help himself, but to 
help others. As he walked by his side and 
looked into his face, he felt ashamed of him- 
self. He forgot about the Pharisees and 
their hypocrisies. He thought within him- 
self: “Here is Jesus giving his life to help the 
poor and the suffering, and here am I a tax- 
gatherer, filching their hard earnings, and tak- 
ing the bread out of their mouths in order to 
enrich myself.” And in that few minutes of 
personal contact with Jesus, without a word 
being spoken, the very presence of Christ 
wrought its alchemy in the hard heart of the 
publican. Prompt and energetic, accustomed 
to act with decision, when they reached the 
house, Zaccheus stood and said to the Lord: 
“Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to 
the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted 
aught of any man, I restore fourfold.” 

“And Jesus said unto him, To-day is salva- 
tion come to this house, forasmuch as he also 
is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man 
came to seek and to save that which was lost.” 

The action of Zaccheus is the standing ex- 


48 = Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


ample of the way out for the man whose hands 
are burdened with ill-gotten gain. Most peo- 
ple who have been defrauded would be satisfied 
to get back the principal and interest of the 
amount out of which they have been defraud- 
ed, without exacting the fourfold restoration 
of the old Levitical law; and under the Chris- 
tian dispensation, this is sufficient to satisfy 
the reasonable demands of conscience. 

It is not probable that much was left of Zac- 
cheus’s swollen fortune; but no one who reads 
the parable of the Rich Fool, who pulled down 
his barns and built greater in order to accom- 
modate the vast harvests of his fields, and then 
lost his soul that very night unprepared; no 
one who has read the parable of the rich man 
lifting up his eyes in torment and begging for 
a drop of water to cool his tongue; no one who 
believes these things can doubt for an instant 
that Zaccheus acted wisely. 

Nothing could be more suited to present-day 
conditions than Christ’s appeal to the business 
man. Zaccheus was a good type of the mod- 
ern high-financier, in-that the main end of his 
business was appropriating the earnings of 
others, 


Appeal to the Business Man. 49 


Never in the history of the world have the 
activities of men been so given to business. 
The greater part of the best manhood of Amer- 
ica to-day is going into business life. During 
the Middle Ages, the strong man despised the 
clerk’s petty trick of writing, and scorned to 
wield anything lighter than a sword. Scott’s 
“Ivanhoe” gives a brilliant picture of the pur- 
suits which absorbed the men of that day. 
They were men for whom we can but feel a 
thrill of admiration. Our hearts quicken when 
we see Ivanhoe unhorsing his antagonists in 
the tournament; or when we hear the thunder 
strokes of the battle-ax of Richard the Lion- 
hearted demolishing the postern-gate at the 
castle of Font-de-Boeuf. Such was, and such 
had been for ages, the type of man whom the 
world delighted to honor. 

But times have changed—on the whole for 
the better—and now the current standard. of 
manhood is what a man can do in business. 
Wars are infrequent, and soon over when they 
do occur. International differences are often 
settled in a business way, by mutual agreement 
and an indemnity. 

4 


50 = Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that honor 
feels, 

And the nations do but murmur, snarling at each other’s 
heels, 


But the war spirit still lives in business. 
The roar of the stock exchange succeeds the 
tumult of battle. Men fight with the keen edge © 
of their wits, rather than with the Damascus 
blade. Commercial competition is only a shade 
less merciless than war itself. In business 
strife, the cry is still, “Woe to the conquered!” 
Nor does the modern business gladiator ex- 
hibit much more scruples of conscience than 
the old-time warrior. We cannot deny that the 
soliloquy of the misanthropic young man in 
Tennyson’s “Maud” scarcely exaggerates the 
worst features of modern commercialism. 
Why do we prate of the blessings of Peace? We have 

made them a curse, 

Pickpockets, each hand lusting for all that is not its 

own; 
And lust of gain, in the spirit of Cain, is it better or worse 


Than the heart of the citizen hissing in war on his 
own hearthstone? 


But these are the days of advance, the works of men 
of mind, 
When who but a fool would have faith in a trades- 
man’s ware or his word? 


Appeal to the Business Man. 51 


Is it peace, or war? Civil war, as I think, of a kind 
The viler, as underhand, not openly bearing the sword. 


Peace sitting under her olive and slurring the days 
gone by, 
When the poor are hovel’d and hustled together, each 
sex, like swine, 
When only the ledger lives, and when only not all men 
lie; 
Peace in her vineyard—yes!—but a company forges 
the wine. 


And the vitriol madness flushes up in the ruffian’s head, 
Till the filthy by-lane rings to the yell of the trampled 
wife, 
And chalk and alum and plaster are sold to the poor 
for bread, 


And the spirit of murder works in the very means 
of life. 


And Sleep must lie down arm’d, for the villainous cen- 
ter-bits 
Grind on the wakeful ear in the hush of the moonless 
nights, 
While another is cheating the sick of a few last gasps, 
as he sits 
To pestle a poisoned poison behind his crimson lights. 


Not all business men are like this, but there 
is too much truth in the above indictment. 
Not by wild anarchical denunciations, but by 
love showing a better way, is our deliverance 


52 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


to come. It is easier to generalize concerning 
a disease than to propose specific remedies ; but 
in the light of Christ’s word one remedy stands 
out clear, to lead business men one by one to 
accept the Christ standard. 

When Crittenton, the millionaire druggist 
of New York, came into vital contact with 
Jesus Christ, he ceased piling up money, and 
went to work to seek and to save that which 
was lost. He says: “No class of men are so 
much neglected by Christian workers as busi- 
ness men. I never had a Christian worker 
come into my office and talk to me about sal- 
vation.” 

The individual Christian business man must 
be the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. 
No man whose spirit has been touched by the 
golden rule can follow the heartless methods 
of the modern captains of industry and the 
trust-builders. No man who truly knows 
Christ would employ a secret railroad rebate 
to crush a competitor. No Christian manu- 
facturer would send out unwholesome or adul- 
terated food-products to poison a nation. No 
man whose spirit had ever felt the breath of 
Christian philanthropy would force the work- 


Appeal to the Business Man. 53 


ers in his factory to labor at starvation wages 
amid unsanitary surroundings. No man who 
really knows Christ would break full-handed, 
and defraud his creditors; nor will the sincere 
Christian employ the thousand petty tricks by 
which the small merchant defrauds his cus- 
tomers. Neither will a true follower of Christ 
leave his bills unpaid. 

The spirit of Christian brotherhood must 
finally dominate the business world. ‘Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’; “As ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye also 
to them likewise,’’—these are the even-balanced 
scales of business justice. Some day the world 
will find that it pays to do business in Christ’s 
way. James Russell Lowell says we must seek 
the solution of the differences between labor and 
capital by listening to the still small voice that 
teaches us a wider and wiser brotherhood. 

When Zaccheus made his great gift to the 
poor, and his great restitution, he paid his 
initiation fee into the order of Universal 
Brotherhood; no longer standing in bitter iso- 
lation on his monument of ill-gotten wealth, 
he descends to take his part in the common lot 
of men and to be reunited to the race. 


CHAPTER XI, 
Curist’s CLAIM ON THE ARISTOCRAT. 


THE word aristocrat is here used in the 
broadest sense, to include any who belong to 
the so-called upper classes. Aristocracy is the 
ripe and mellow flavor of fortune. Had Zac- 
cheus not disintegrated his great possessions 
in order to save his soul—had he left them to 
his children, they, no doubt, would have repu- - 
diated the wretched business of tax-gathering, 
would have made broad their phylacteries, and 
cultivated that species of ceremonial morality 
which, along with wealth, was the passport 
into the Jewish higher circles. Of such was 
the rich young ruler who came running and 
kneeling before Jesus, saying, “Good Teacher, 
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” 
(Mark x. 17.) Nothing shows Christ’s in- 
sight into the human heart so clearly as his 
treatment of this case. 

The young man had all the points of a Jew- 
ish aristocrat—position, wealth, a blameless 


(54) 


Christ’s Claim on the Aristocrat. 55 


life. He honored father and mother; he 
neither killed, nor defrauded, nor bore false 
witness, nor committed adultery. He was 
without blemish from his youth up. More than 
most of his class, he recognized the obligations 
of nobility. Like a tall white marble shaft, he 
stood before the Saviour. No wonder that 
Jesus, beholding him, loved him. But if a _ 
flash of lightning had blackened and shattered 
that shaft, it would not have been more start- 
ling than the tremendous demand which Christ 
makes: “One thing thou lackest; go, sell what- 
soever thou hast, and give to the poor, and 
thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, 
follow me.’ In the search-light of this de- 
mand, the young man’s towering moral excel- 
lence was seen to be 


Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, 
Dead perfection—no more. 


He had no heart. His life began, continued, 
and ended with himself. He was so desperate- 
ly selfish that only the annihilation of his 
wealth and position could save him. Selfish- 
ness is the very principle by which an ex- 
clusive upper class exists. Aristocracy must 


56 Christ's Way of W inning Souls. 


reverse itself in order to become Christian. 
It is not strange that “his countenance fell at 
the saying, and he went away sorrowful; for 
he was one that had great possessions.” 

Christ’s claim on the aristocrat still stands, 
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. 
Perhaps in most instances he would not insist 
upon such radical steps, but he does claim all 
of every man. The soul must be stripped bare 
before Christ will enter. We are not warrant- 
ed in the sweeping conclusion that in every 
instance God requires that the man of means 
go sell all that he has and spend his life in 
distinctively religious work. But nothing in 
the teachings of Christ is plainer than the doc- 
trine of stewardship. The rich man is simply 
the administrator; the ultimate title is with 
God. This is brought out in the parable of 
the Talents, and crops out again and again in 
the sayings of Christ. 

Stewardship carries with it responsibility. 
God, in his providence, has permitted the aris- 
tocracies of Europe and the plutocracy of 
America; but he will require at the last day a 
strict account for every shilling of money and 
every iota of social and political power. The 


Christ's Claim: on the Aristocrat. 57 


heaviest weight of responsibility rests upon 
the rich and powerful upper classes, whether it 
be the Russian Grand Dukes, the German 
Barons; the English Nobility, or the American 
Four Hundred. God will require much at the 
hands of those who hold the reins of wealth 
and social prestige in every town and village. 
However much such may ignore their respon- 
sibility, it still exists, and God will require the 
uttermost farthing in the day of judgment. 
This responsibility—from which there is no 
escape—is enough to make the aspirant after 
the world’s glory and the world’s gold pause 
and search his heart. Who is sufficient for 
these things? 

It was in no spirit of demagoguery that 
Christ said: ““Woe unto you that are rich! for 
ye have received your consolation. Woe unto 
you, ye that are full now! for ye shall hunger. 
Woe unto you, ye that laugh now! for ye shall 
mourn and weep. Woe unto you when all 
men shall speak well of you!’ (Luke vi. 24- 
26.) So far from Christ endeavoring to ex- 
cite envy of the rich, the whole trend of his 
teaching is to arouse pity for the ultimate end 
of many of them. The rich man’s purple and 


58 = Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


fine linen and sumptuous daily fare were but 
the brilliant prelude to eternal misery. 

Thousands of the so-called upper class sat- 
isfy their consciences with a form of Chris- 
tianity, but are as destitute of the real spirit of 
Christ as the Hindoo who bathes in the sacred 
waters of the Ganges. 

Regretfully watching the rich young man as 
he went away, the Saviour said: “Children, 
how hard is it for them that trust in riches to 
enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier 
for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than 
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
God.” The whole occurrence struck the disci- 
ples with such amazement that they exclaimed, 
“Then who can be saved?” But Christ, with 
a faith rising superior to the present discour- 
agement, answered: “With men it is impossi- 
ble, but not with God; for all things are pos- 
sible with God.” 

Not all rich men have been like the rich 
young ruler. On the day of Pentecost, the 
principle of covetousness was for the time com- 
pletely superseded by the power of the Holy 
Spirit. “They had all things common.” “For 
neither was there among them any that 


Christ’s Claim on the Aristocrat. 59 


lacked ; for as many as were possessors of lands 
or houses sold them, and brought the prices of 
the things that were sold, and laid them at the 
apostles’ feet; and distribution was made unto 
each, according as any one had need.” The 
case of Barnabas, the Levite, the son of ex- 
hortation, was conspicuous; who, “having a 
field, sold it, and brought the money and laid 
it at the apostles’ feet.” While this remarkable 
economic arrangement was of short duration, 
it remains as a beautiful vision of unselfish- 
ness. 

The gospel most needed by the wealthy up- 
per classes is the gospel of service. It is their 
only salvation. 


I know you, Clara Vere de Vere, 
You pine among your halls and towers: 
The languid light of your proud eyes 
Is wearied of the rolling hours. 
In glowing health, with boundless wealth, 
But sickening of a vague disease, 
You know so ill to deal with time, 
You needs must play such pranks as these. 


Clara, Clara, Vere de Vere, 
Tf time be heavy on your hands, 
Are there no beggars at your gate, 
Nor any poor about your lands? 


60 = Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


O! teach the orphan boy to read, 
Or teach the orphan girl to sew, 

Pray heaven for a human heart, 
And let the foolish yeoman go. 


“Whosoever would become great among 
you, shall be your minister; and whosoever 
would be first among you, shall be servant of 
all.”’” (Mark xx. 43, 44.) Christ inverts the 
world’s order. The chief aim of life should 
be, not to be served, but to serve; not what 
you can get, but what you can give; not how 
much happiness you can absorb like a sponge, 
but how much of the vital energies of your life 
you can impart to humanity for its better- 
ment. 

The Christian standard of business success 
is not how much money a man can accumu- 
late and leave to his children, but how much 
he can intelligently give away during his life- 
time. It is said of George Peabody that “his 
benefactions were so eminently wise and help- 
ful fo the community that he was greatly be- 
loved and respected in both England and 
America.” Beginning with nothing but youth 
and ability, he laid the foundations of his for- 
tune in Baltimore, and crowned his career with 


Christ's Claim on the Aristocrat. 61 


remarkable success in London. The proper 
distribution of his money concerned him more 
than the accumulation of it. Among his nu- 
merous benefactions, the two most conspicu- 
ous were a gift of $2,500,000 for the erection 
of model tenement houses in London, to be 
rented to the poor at reasonable rates; and 
$3,500,000 for the cause of education in the 
South, known as the Peabody Educational 
Fund. Altogether, he gave away between 
eight and nine million dollars. 

Society showed its gratitude to him by hon- 
ors far beyond those granted to the selfish rich 
whose fortunes far exceeded his. Three years 
before his death he was given the freedom of 
the city of London—an uncommon honor; and 
the Queen sent him a miniature portrait of her- 
self, accompanied by an autograph letter. He 
was buried in Westminster Abbey; and the re- 
mains were afterwards conveyed to his native 
land by the British warship Monarch, and 
buried with fitting honors in his native town 
of Danvers, Mass., and the name of the place 
changed to Peabody in his memory. George 
Peabody was a wise steward of the talents 
intrusted to him, and became great through 
service. 


62. Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


The annals of English nobility have fur- 
nished no grander example of unselfish de- 
votion to humanity than that of the Sey- 
enth Earl of Shaftesbury. The First Earl of 
Shaftesbury distinguished himself as a polit- 
ical leader; the Third Earl of Shaftesbury was 
a distinguished moral philosopher who came 
near being a skeptic; but the Seventh Earl of 
Shaftesbury outshines his celebrated ancestors 
by his evangelical Christianity and his humane 
spirit, and has earned for himself the title of 
the “Father of modern legislation for the re- 
lief of the poor.” He was not rich. At one 
time hard pressed by financial embarrassments 
occasioned by neglecting his own private af- 
fairs for the sake of his philanthropic work, 
he exclaims, “My debts are endless!” But his 
high rank and his seat in Parliament, which 
he held for twenty-five years almost without 
interruption, were devoted to the help of those 
who needed a friend. He brought about a 
more humane treatment of the insane; he 
ameliorated the condition of factory workers, 
and secured the passage of a ten-hour law; 
secured legislation for the benefit of the coal- 
miners; was for thirty-nine years chairman of 


Christ’s Claim on the Aristocrat. 63 


the Ragged School Union. During all this 
period, when his eloquence would flame out in 
great speeches which stirred the conscience of 
the nation, he was the intimate friend of the 
poor, visited them constantly in their homes, 
heard with sympathy the story of their trou- 
bles, and was known and loved by the unfor- 
tunate as no other man of his time. When the 
funeral procession bearing his remains was on 
its way to the last resting place in Westminster 
Abbey, among all the costly tributes paid to 
him, nothing was so expressive as the words 
of a poorly clad man, who burst into tears as 
the procession passed him, and said: “Our 
Earl is dead, and God Almighty knows where 
we'll ever find another.” 

Verily the rich young ruler missed his 
chance for immortality! 

We have no more right to pass by the sinful 
rich than to neglect the sinful poor. Let us 
not imagine that the slums have a monopoly 
of misery. The purple and fine linen may en- 
shroud an aching heart. Elegant and costly 
surroundings may be the outward trappings 
of desperate moral corruption. A colorless life 
of blameless morality, such as the young rul- 


64 Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


er’s, is not to be expected of many people who 
have wealth and leisure. Human nature can- 
not long subsist ‘on negations. The life that 
knows not the positive thrill of a Christlike 
purpose will try to fill up the vacuum with 
revelry, carousal, exterior display, or some 
artificial and far-fetched kind of amusement. 
There is a profound philosophy in Paul’s say- 
ing, “Be not drunken with wine, wherein is 
riot, but be filled with the Spirit.” 


But human bodies are sic fools, 

For a’ their colleges and schools, 

That when nae real ills perplex them, 
They make enow themselves to vex them. 
But Gentlemen and Ladies warst, 

Wi?’ evendown want of wark*are curst, 
Their days insipid, dull, and tasteless, 
Their nights unquiet, long, and restless, 
And e’en their sports, their balls and races, 
Their galloping through public places, 
There’s sic parade, sic pomp and art, 

The joy can scarcely reach the heart, 


Phillips Brooks, at a Boston social gather- 
ing, in one of the brilliant conversational out- 
bursts for which he was noted, spoke with 
great respect of the work in the slums done 


Christ's Claim on the Aristocrat. 65 


by the Salvation Army, then in its incipiency. 
Then, suddenly, he referred to a certain dis- 
solute and fashionable men’s club, and said, 
“The Salvation Army ought to go there too.” 

“All humanity needs Christ. If by circum- 
stances, in the providence of God, we are 
thrown in contact with the aristocrat, let us 
not be repelled by his proud and exclusive 
ways. No man is better than Christ. Per- 
haps under the crust of arrogance there is a 
conscience that cries for help. Let us not de- 
spair of saving him. Let us speak the truth 
in simplicity and godly sincerity. We may 
save some; and as for the rest, we have de- 
livered our own souls. 


5 


CHAPTER XII. 


THE CHRIST PRESENCE. 


THE doctrine of Transubstantiation—the 
change of the bread and wine to the physical 
body and blood of Christ—is simply an at- 
tempt to satisfy the demand of human nature 
for something tangible in religion. No man is 
satisfied with his religious experience until he 
enters into the realm of reality. What Ro 
manism fails to furnish by an ecclesiastical 
fable, Christ supplies by a simple promise: 
“Judas (not Iscariot) saith unto him, Lord, 
what is come to pass that thou wilt manifest 
thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus 
answered and said unto him, If a man love me, 
he will keep my word; and my Father will love 
him, and we will come unto him and make our 
abode with him.” (John xiv. 22, 23.) 

The baptism of the Holy Spirit, which has 
been so much insisted upon as a qualification 
for service, is the vital realization of the pres- 
ence and power of Christ. The Comforter is 


(FE) 


The Christ Presence. 67 


the Omnipresent Saviour, the Successor and 
Representative of Jesus Christ on earth. When 
he ascended on high, he transformed himself 
into spirit, and poured himself out upon the 
world. ‘“Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of 
truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the 
truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but 
what things soever he shall hear, these shall he 
speak: and he shall declare unto you the things 
that are to come. He shall glorify me; for he 
shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto 
you.” (John xvi. 13, 14.) 

Note the words, “He shail not speak from 
himself.”” Too much emphasis upon the per- 
son of the Holy Spirit distracts attention from 
the very purpose of his coming. The Holy 
Spirit is, as it were, the crystal lens through 
which we see Christ. ‘‘No man can say Jesus 
is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit.” 

It is easy to put too much stress upon the 
subjective side of religious experience. Emo- 
tions, impressions, inward mental conditions, 
are as variable as the sands of Sahara. Great 
emotional upheavals may become fixed in 
memory as landmarks of spiritual progress; 
but they cannot be depended upon as a perma- 


68 = Christ's Way of Winnin g Souls. 


nent source of grace. As well put reliance in 
a cloudburst for a permanent water supply. 
Subjective experience, to be reliable, must be 
based upon Christ as its object. He is the 
same, yesterday, to-day, and forever. The 
Christ Presence is the permanent heritage of 
the Church. “Lo, I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world.” 

Dr. Joseph Parker, commenting on the text, 
“No man hath seen God at any time,” calls 
attention to the fact that we do not really see 
each other. Accustomed as we are to look 
upon the physical presence of our friends, it 
may not have occurred to us that the real pres- 
ence is not to be discerned with the physical 
eye, but is a matter of contact, experience. 
George Washington Cable, in one of his Cre- 
ole Sketches, draws a picture of the gallant but 
vainglorious and worldly-minded old General 
V. , of the New Orleans French Quar- 
ter, paying a visit to the dusty little office of 
his son, Dr. Mossy, the physician, who un- 
known to his father was winning high stand- 
ing among European scientists. Father and 
son sat together in the little office, physically 
close together, but spiritually many, many 





The Christ Presence. 69 


miles apart. From the diversity of their aims 
in life, they had long been estranged. Had 
one of the eminent scientists with whom Dr. 
Mossy was in such close brotherly correspond- 
ence been paying the visit, there would have 
been no lack of spiritual nearness. The two, 
united in a common love for science, would 
have been drawn together in the brotherhood 
of intellect. 

There was, among the apostles, an inner 
circle, Peter, James, and John, with whom 
Christ spent more time than with all the rest. 
They were his sole companions on the mount 
of Transfiguration, and in the shades of Geth- 
semane. This was no capricious partiality. 
There was about the trio a distinguishing qual- 
ity which fitted them for such intimacy. Of 
the three, there was one who leaned on the 
Master’s bosom, and who, more than any other 
man, shared the secrets of the Lord. To John 
was given the transcendent honor of getting 
closer to Christ than any other man during his 
earthly life. 

And yet, the Christ Presence is not an ex- 
clusive experience which it is the privilege of 
only a favored few to share. It is not lack of 


70 Christ’s Way of Winning Souls. 


graciousness with Christ, but lack of capacity 
among men that limits his spiritual presence. 
He is more anxious to impart himself unto us 
than we are to receive him. It is the burning 
desire of his soul to give himself to men. 
There is no one of us with whom he would 
not gladly grant as intimate association as 
ever he bestowed on the beloved disciple. 

For centuries, in their sculpture, the Greeks 
strove to express in marble the human form 
divine, the ideal man as God intended him. 
For a long time critics fixed upon the Apollo 
Belvedere, in the Vatican Museum at Rome, as 
the most nearly perfect representation of the 
human form in the world. Later archzolog- 
ical research and criticism have reversed this 
verdict; and the Hermes of Praxiteles is now 
agreed to be absolutely without a rival as a 
perfect expression of physical manhood. The 
glory of the Hermes, surpassing all other 
pieces of sculpture, is that of essential man- 
hood. It stands for all that is strongest and 
most beautiful in physical man. Likewise, the 
glory of Christ is the glory of spiritual man- 
hood, fresh from the hands of God. What 
the Hermes is to the manhood of marble, Jesus 


The Christ Presence. 71 


Christ is to the manhood of flesh and spirit; 
and more. The surpassing glory of Christ is 
that his excellence of spirit communicates itself 
to men. He is not only great as a model, but 
as one who models others after his own like- 
ness. 

The poor deformed wretch with crooked 
limbs and spinal curvature, gazing upon the 
physical perfection of the Hermes, could only 
turn away, eyes filled with tears, realizing all 
the more keenly his own ugliness. But Jesus 
Christ is not cold and heartless marble, but 
living flesh and breathing spirit. He is not 
unapproachable in peerlessness, but peerless in 
his very approachableness. His humanity is 
an exhaustless storehouse of divine excellence. 
“Of his fullness we all received, and grace for 
grace.” As the sun in the heavens has shone 
with undiminished warmth since the dawn of 
history, so Jesus Christ has warmed the life- 
blood of human beings frozen to deathly chill 
by the world’s neglect. When, conscious of 
our own spiritual deformity, we gaze on the 
likeness of the Christ, the hope rises within 
us that we can be partakers of his nature. 
“We know that if he shall be manifested, we 


72 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


shall be. like him; for we shall see him even as 
he is.” 

The dullness, the lack of spiritual capacity 
among men was a constant wonder to our 
Lord. To the disciples he was always saying, 
“Are ye also without understanding?” To 
live and walk with Christ should be the normal 
experience of every man. Reading his words 
in the Gospels ought to be like getting letters 
from a loved friend. His career on earth 
ought to interest us as much as every move- 
ment of a distinguished comrade. Our sense 
of awe and wonder and delight in him should 
be a part of our conscious nature. The suffer- 
ings and tragedy of his death ought to haunt 


us. 
Was it for crimes that I have done, 
He groaned upon the tree? 


The triumph of his resurrection ought to 
exhilarate us with an unfailing faith. If the 
Christ of the Gospels is a real person, one 
whom we love, one to whose service we have 
dedicated our lives, one whose claim we rec- 
ognize as supreme, no word or act of his can 
fail to hold us with a fascinating interest. 

But eager as Christ is to admit men into his 


The Christ Presence. 73 


intimate companionship, he is stern in making 
his own terms. “Ye are my friends if ye do 
the things which I command you.” Absolute 
and unswerving obedience is the test. To 
those who deny him this, he denies himself to 
them. 

The Christ Presence, realized in experience, 
covers the whole ground of the doctrine of 
assurance, the witness of the Spirit. The per- 
sonal realization of the Saviour bleeding on 
the cross, dying for my sins, banishes all 
doubts of my pardon. If Christ lends his pres- 
ence to my heart, I know that I am not repro- 
bate. If I abide in him and have power to 
walk as he walked, then “I know him whom 
I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is 
able to guard that which I have committed 
unto him against that day.” 

The personal presence of Christ likewise cov- 
ers all the ground of the higher Christian ex- 
periences. When Peter exhorts us to grow in 
grace, he immediately adds, “and in the knowl- 
edge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 
Paul says: “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill 


the lusts thereof.” Where Christ dwells, there 
6 


74 Christ's Way of Winning Souls. 


is no provision left for sin. He appropriates 
all the territory of the heart. Henry Drum- 
mond proposes as the Formula of Sanctifica- 
tion a text in which Christ is all in all: “We 
all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mir- 
ror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into 
the same image from glory to glory, even as 
from the Lord the Spirit.” 

To the Apostle Paul, the Christ Presence was 
an enthralling reality. His personal identity 
was lost in him. “I have been crucified with 
Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but 
Christ liveth in me,” he sang triumphant. It 
was his consuming purpose to know him in the 
power of his resurrection and the fellowship of 
his sufferings. So ardently did he press to- 
ward the mark of the prize of the upward call- 
ing of God in Christ Jesus that he dared to 
say to his converts: “Brethren, be ye imitators 
together of me.” 

The Christ Presence, realized in the heart, 
is conclusive proof of the personality of God. 
“No man hath seen God at any time; the only 
begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Fa- 
ther, he hath declared him.” The personality 
of God is the dividing boundary of religious 


The Christ Presence. 75 


faith. Doubt that, and pantheism or atheism 
follows. Establish that, and all things are pos- 
sible. Only let me be convinced that God is, 
that he is wisdom, and power, and holiness ; 
that, crowning all, he is love, a personal God 
who loves me; and all the whole glorious train 
of revealed truths follows in easy and natural 
order. Neither signs nor wonders nor spirit- 
ual revelations tax my faith if God is in the 
record. Paul before Agrippa clinched his argu- 
ment by saying, “Why should it be thought a 
thing incredible with you, that God should 
raise the dead?” (Acts xxvi. 8, A. V.) 

That man who knows Christ, and through 
Christ knows God, bears within himself a liv- 
ing argument. He needs no skill with- syllo- 
gism or lengthy array of statistics to make out 
his case, for he bears Christ within him, the 
hope of glory. He has the witness within him- 
self, and, standing on the Impregnable Rock of 
Holy Scripture, he needs no other proof. 

The Christ Presence is the beginning and 
the end of the Christian worker’s equipment. 
Not only must we study his methods, but we 
must be baptized into his Spirit. 








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SCHOOL OF RELIGION — 


niversity 


uti LU 





DO01349780W 


